According to initial plans, the third Metro line will run 27 kilometers from Albrook– Panama city’s main transportation hub for destinations in the rest of the country – to La Chorrera, a small city west of the capital. The line will include 14 stations, and is estimated to be completed in 2022.

Commuting time would be drastically reduced. The estimated time by monorail from the furthest planned station, Ciudad del Futuro in La Chorrera, to Albrook is 45 minutes. Due to traffic congestion, this journey can currently take up to three hours.

Indeed, residents of Panama City and the surrounding areas have long suffered poor public transportation, congested roads, and long commutes.

During the construction of the first Metro line, the traffic situation temporarily worsened. But much to commuters’ relief, in 2014 Panama’s – and Central America’s – first Metro line was installed.

Ready for its first passengers, the line was inaugurated in April 2014, and during its first week of operation, the new Metro system carried some one million passengers.

Line 1 has 15 stations, and runs from Albrook to San Isidro station in the north of the city.

Last October, construction of Line 2 began. Estimated to take four years to complete, Line 2 will run 21 kilometres between Albrook and Rana de Oro in the east of the city. The line will have 16 stations and the journey between the Rana de Oro and Albrook will take 35 minutes.

Costs and construction

Costing some $32 million dollars, the Line 2 project is being supervised by the consortium PML2, which is comprised of Spanish company Ayesa, the Metropolitan Transports of Barcelona – Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) in Spanish – and the U.S.-based engineering company Louis Berger.